Revisiting the Fallout Franchise: Exploring TV Shows’ Impact on Gaming Resurgence

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by John Bonanno, Marketing Insights Manager, LG Ad Solutions
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Historically, studios have struggled to convert video games into successful TV shows and movies (for example, the Prince of Persia movie), but have had more recent success across both streaming (The Last of Us) and movie theaters (The Super Mario Bros. Movie). Released on April 11, Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout, a new TV show based on the post-apocalyptic role-playing game franchise of the same name, is the latest video game to successfully make the leap. Fallout has been well received and as of this writing, is currently boasting an 8.5 rating on IMDb. Fans of the video game have particularly enjoyed how the TV show captures specific details, such as using bottle caps as currency or references to Nuka Cola. So perhaps it is no surprise that it has already been renewed for a second season.

From a video game perspective, the multiplayer-focused Fallout 76 came out in 2018, while the more traditional single-player Fallout 4 came out in 2015. Given LG Ad Solutions’ ability to see what hits the glass via our automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, we wanted to see if the release of Fallout the TV show inspired gamers to revisit Fallout video games that came out a while ago.

revisiting the fallout franchise chart

Looking at April as a whole, LG Ad Solutions saw almost 7x more households playing Fallout video games after the release of the Fallout TV show!

Despite the show coming out on Wednesday April 10, the number of gamers didn’t increase until the weekend. This was likely due to gamers needing time to finish the full season and having more free time on weekends. Each subsequent weekend post-release had more gamers than the previous weekend, with the final weekend in April likely getting a boost from newly released content for Fallout 4.

Overall, Fallout the TV show is another proof point in the recent trend of successfully converting video games into successful tv shows and movies (both the previously mentioned “The Last of Us” and “Super Mario Bros. Movie” have another season and movie in the works, respectively). So how can advertisers take advantage of the video game-to-content wave?

With ACR advertisers can capitalize on this increased interest in gaming and target audiences based on the video games households are playing. For example, gaming publishers and hardware manufacturers could communicate deals on other video games, downloadable content, or the latest consoles to those who have just started playing. Delivery services could tap into those lacking free time due to their marathon gaming sessions.Today’s gaming audiences are primed to be engaged by both entertainment companies and consumer brands.

Ready to take your gaming strategy to the next level? Reach out to LG Ads Solutions to learn more!